2017 Matzah Hunt Potions Puzzle

For the past 3 years we have put together an event for our friends and family that we have named Matzah Hunt. We put on this event in place of/in addition to a Passover Seder and it is an afternoon and evening full of a series of math/logic puzzles which ultimately lead to a hunt for the Missing Matzah, hence the name, Matzah Hunt. Over the years, the puzzles have become more involved and creative, the decorations have become more elaborate, and luckily, the attendance has grown. It ends up being a wonderfully fun day that we look forward to each year.

We opted for a themed Matzah Hunt this year: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. We thought that we should share our variation of the Snape’s potions puzzle at the end of the book. We arrange the vials of potions in a grid as opposed to a line, and we require 2 of the potions to be mixed to solve the puzzle.

Here is the arrangement of the vials (during the event, these were filled with two different liquids of the same color – one sweet and one bitter tasting. We opted for Port wine with a touch of green dye in it and Frenet Branca).

Potions Puzzle Layout 1